Re: Utah

[Steve Jackson <sj@io.com>]

On Wed, 1 Feb 1995, paul sparks wrote:

> Jerry Harris talked about the state of Utah using the 'school trust' area
> that has produced Utahraptor, et al and intends to sale it to commercial
> interests to raise funds for the school systems.
(snip)
> Kidding aside this is a terrible thing to happen especially as a trend
> starter. The grinch would love this.

What's terrible? Finding fossils is terrible? Funding education is 
terrible? For-profit collecting is so terrible that everything it
touches is tainted?

Let me suggest that what would be "terrible" would be to have the 
exploration done in a smash-and-grab fashion. But if it's responsibly
supervised, it's a great precedent, and a lot of fossils might wind up
studied and described that would otherwise erode unseen. And if some
of them end up in private hands, so what? If the knowledge is retained,
and ESPECIALLY if the final owner agrees to make the specimen available
for further study under reasonable conditions, it's a win-win situation.

** Steve Jackson - yes, of SJ Games - yes, we won the USSS case - fnord **
   yes, INWO is out - http://io.com/sjgames/ - dinosaurs, Lego, Kahlua!